Learn about babywearing with me

Author: babywearingjourney
(page 1 of 4)

I had not heard of the brand Ankalia until I was invited to host a traveling wrap for Babywearing Love and Support. Ankalia is an Australian company that says that their designs are made by local artists and then the wraps are produced locally. Ankalai donated this particular wrap to The Okay Wrapper, and Babywearing Love and Support won the wrap in an IBW2015 giveaway.

I enjoy trying new wraps, but I can’t afford to buy all of them (as much as I might try to), so hosting traveling wraps is a fun way to try out new wraps and learn about new companies. And it also gives me more wraps to review!

I had this Icarus for a little over two weeks. While I had it, we were visiting family in Houston so I got the chance to use the wrap both around the house and while traveling. At home, my biggest wrap use is for doing farm chores: we have horses and sometimes the little one needs to go with me to the barn. Unfortunately, this wrap was so light in color that I was worried it would get dirty out in the barn. I did wear the little one in this wraps for walks around our property and down the road, and I wore her while I worked on the computer at my standing desk.

The little one I wrapped was about eighteen months old when I hosted the wrap.. She’s long/tall and lean for an eighteen month old (about 22 lbs).

When I saw the photos of this wrap, I wasn’t sure I would like it. I tend to pick darker colors (partially because I’m so afraid of staining a wrap and I figure darker colors won’t show dirt as much!). But I wanted to try a new brand and was excited to be invited to participate in my first traveling wrap. I’m so glad I gave it a chance.

This wrap is so pretty: the colors are soft and light, but the variation in color is enough to hide some mild dirt (shoe scuffs, rubbing up against something, etc.) unless you are looking closely.

This wrap was more dense than I’m used to, and it was wider than i was used to. That gave me the chance to experiment a little with something that didn’t wrap like my normal wraps. The extra width would probably be really nice with a bigger kid. For me, it took a little getting used to.

The wrap is advertised at 260 g/m2 (which puts it in the heavy weight wrap category). I measured it at closer to 285. It isn’t a thick wrap, but it is very densely woven. I found it a bit stiff, and I’m not sure if that’s due to how dense it is or if the wrap needs some more breaking in. The stiffness made it a bit more challenging for me to wrap (I wouldn’t say I’m a beginner – but I’m definitely not a super experienced wrapper, either). I had a bit of trouble getting the rails really tight and had to adjust a bit after I got my daughter into the carry. I think that’s something I would get better at as I got used to this wrap and not a failing on the wrap.

Because the wrap is dense, I think it is very supportive and doesn’t tend to sag (once I got it tight). My daughter is fairly petite, but I imagine this wrap could be good for a much heavier kid due to the denseness.

I tried this in a FCC and a ruck tied Tibetan. I never felt like I got this tight enough in the FCC, but again that might be me. I did enjoy this one wrap for a ruck – I ended up wearing my daughter for several hours in a ruck carry with this wrap. I also tried a Coolest Hip Cross Carry (my favorite hip carry). The slip knot seemed really big – probably because the wrap is so dense that it can be a little bulky.

I really can’t say anything negative about this wrap. It is beautiful, it is strong, and it looks great when in use. I think it could support a heavier kid. The only negatives had more to do with my skill and experience rather than the wrap itself.

Back carries are tricky, and I really struggled with my first (Secure High Back Carry – SHBC). Fortunately, now that I feel like I have gotten the hang of putting the little one on my back and making a seat for her, learning new back carries seem to be getting easier.

Like SHBC, a six 6 (my base) is best for this carry, although I can also use a size 5 if I don’t mind not having any tails left over. With the BWCC, the wrap goes over your baby’s back three times – which I think makes it nice for a chillier weather, and those three passes seem to make the wrap pretty secure (which is great for little ones like mine who like to lean and wiggle about!).

I did have to get used to having my little one sit a little lower on my back than she does in SHBC (or a rucksack carry, which I haven’t discussed yet). At first, I kept feeling like she was slipping but I think that’s just because she was lower than I’m used to. In the photos with the blue and black wrap, I have the wrap pulled down so it cups my shoulders. In the photo with the pink wrap, I experimented with the wrap straps up on my shoulders and feel like it is easier to get a tighter, more secure carry that way.

With this carry, I find it a lot easier to get and keep my little one’s arms in. This is nice when I’m someplace where I don’t want her grabbing things, like the store, or when it is chilly out and I want to keep her warm. I like the way this carry wraps and feels, and I think I’ll be using it for walks for a while now.

I did learn one important lesson when trying to use this carry right after learning it: it is harder to wrap when you and your little one are wearing bulky sweaters or coats. I needed to take her out to do barn chores one cold evening, so she was wearing a coat and I had a fleece on. I really struggled to get this wrap job done nicely and had to redo it several times. We were both tired and cranky by the time I got it. I think that’s partially because I had a really hard time getting the wrap up over her coat. It kept catching on the coat fabric and I had a hard time pulling it tight. I’m going to have to practice carries a bit more with sweaters/jackets because our cold weather has just set in and I’ll need to wrap over bulky clothes for a while!

I did get a nice ego boost the first time I wore her out in public in a BWCC. We were buying a season membership to our local arboretum so we can take lots of walks whenever the weather is decent. The woman in the office was so impressed with the carrier and the wrap job that she asked a bunch of questions and then asked me to show it to other women in the office. It was nice to get to chat about carriers and babywearing with a receptive audience!

Didymos has been making baby wraps since 1972 – even longer than I’ve been around! And they make awesome wraps. They’re mid-range in price, and they offer a variety of patterns, colors, and blends. Their “indio” wraps refer to a particular pattern of lines (triangles, squares, etc.), and they offer a couple of different indio designs. From a distance, the wraps look very simple, but up close they’re so complex and beautiful.

My last review was the Didymos Deep Blueand Gold Indio., which was my first indio wrap. The very day I bought that wrap, I saw the Didymos Emerald Turquoise Hemp Indio (ETHI) for sale on the Didymos Love and Appreciate Facebook page. I whined to my husband that I so wanted this wrap but had just bought another one earlier in the day. My wonderful husband said, “If it is that important to you, buy it!” He didn’t have to tell me twice!

When this wrap arrived, it was such a soft wrap. The colors were bright and gorgeous. I couldn’t wait to start playing with it. It was a lot thinner than the Didymos Deep Blue and Gold Hemp Indio, which made it a bit easier for me (I was still a newbie wrapper then).

This wrap has emerald cotton with a turquoise hemp weft. It is 60% cotton and 40% hemp. Hemp blend wraps are recommended for both tiny baby and bigger toddlers. My daughter was about seven months old when I bought this wrap, but she was a petite thing. I thought this was a great investment since I could use it while she was small and as she grew.

I’ve heard that hemp wraps can be stiff and hard to break in, so I was lucky to buy a preloved wrap. As I said above, it was super soft and easy to wrap with right off the bat.

I was disappointed to find a few pulled threads* and an area of thread shifting. I met Gina of Dr. Pull’s Fan Club on Facebook, and she got the pulls and thread shifting fixed. Indios seem to be very prone to pulls, and thread-shifting isn’t uncommon on thinner wraps. Both things are easily fixable by someone with a little experience.

This wrap doesn’t shimmer as much as the Deep Blue and Gold Hemp Indio does, but the color is bright and cheerful. I think it makes for a great every day wrap, and it can certainly brighter up a gloomy day!

Although both Deep Blue and Gold Hemp Indio and ETHI are advertised at 220 g/m2, ETHI felt a lot lighter and thinner. But it was also a lot softer, too, and I could see it being a very snuggly wrap for a young baby. I found it easy to wrap with, and it didn’t slip. The only tying complaint I had, really, is that it was so grippy I had a hard time untying a slip knot I used for a Coolest Hip Cross Carry (which is my favorite hip carry).

I’ve mostly used this wrap for various hip carries, and it always feels supportive to me. The grippiness that made the slipknot tough to untie also means the wrap doesn’t seem to slip – and that’s a big plus to me.

I have really enjoyed this wrap, although I am feeling a little churny, so I may soon sell it – just so I can have funds to try some other wraps.

Example of a pulled thread.

*Pulled thread: A pulled thread is a little loop of thread that gets pulled loose from the pattern. It can occur when a fingernail or piece of jewelry catches on a wrap – or something similar.

When you buy a used wrap, the seller has the responsibility to disclose flaws. However, a seller may occasionally miss a pulled thread. As the buyer, you should check over your wrap carefully as soon as you receive it. If it isn’t in the condition you expect, you can bring that up with the seller. Some sellers may offer a refund or a discount, and others will not. That’ll be between you and the seller. I didn’t look over this wrap carefully in a timely manner, so I felt like I had lost the right to complain about the pulls.

So far, the Secure High Back Carry (SHBC) has been the hardest carry in this challenge to learn. I’ve wanted to learn a back carry for a long time: the little one is getting big and it can be hard to get things done with her in a front or hip carry. Plus, I want to get back into hiking and I think it would be easier to carry her on my back.

Early attempts at SHBC – she’s way too low!

Learning a back carry was intimidating, though. I was terrified I would drop her or would do something wrong when wrapping and she would fall out of the wrap. It also takes more coordination to wrap on your back since you cannot see what you are doing with the wrap, and you need to be flexible to accomplish the carry!

I watched videos from Babywearing Faith and Wrapping Rachel several times before attempting the carry, and then I thought through each step of the carry. Finally, I attempted the carry with my little one.

I practiced for weeks by standing with my back to my bed, that way if the little one fell off of me or out of the wrap, she would fall onto the bed and not get hurt. All the experts recommend this, and it certainly eliminated one of my worries.

Getting better at SHBC – she’s a little higher on my back, and she’s learn how to wiggle her arms free. She prefers to be able to grab things!

The first step in back wrapping it getting your baby onto your back. I started out using the hip scoot method to get her on my back (Babywearing Faith shows this method in her video). Using this method, I discovered that I had a hard time getting her high enough. I also felt like she was much more tangled in the wrap that way. Next, I tried the superman toss (shown in Wrapping Rachel’s video). It was a lot easier for me to get her onto my back that way, the wrap didn’t get so tangled, and she loved being tossed up on my back (she’s a little daredevil).

The next step is tightening the top rails of the wrap and pinning them down. For me, I didn’t feel like I held them tightly enough by pinning them under my chin, so I held the top rails between my teeth while making a seat.

Making a seat was the toughest part of learning this carry for me. Once getting the top rail tight and pinned, I reached behind myself and between the little one’s legs and pulled the wrap fabric down until it was smooth across her back. When you tug the wrap down until the fabric is smooth across her back, you are getting all the slack out of the wrap. If you don’t get the slack out of the wrap, your little one will slowly settle and drop down on your back (I learned this from trial and error!). After all the slack it out of the wrap, I then tug up to make a seat.

Still learning – wrap is low on my arm and sloppy. She looks happy, though!

After that, you tighten wrap strand by strand on both sides. It took me some time to learn how to tighten the bottom rail without pulling the seat out – I think that’s something that comes with practice. You cannot just pull with all of your might – you tighten and check to make sure the seat is still secure, then tighten again.

You then tie a half knot on the chest and your baby is fairly secure while you make the wrap passes and tie off. Since my baby is a leaner and a wiggler, I have to keep one hand on her to keep her in place even once the wrap is tight and the half knot is tied.

I struggled with learning this carry for months. I would get frustrated and not try again for a week or more, and then I would try again. She would be too low, or she would lose her seat (the wrap would not go knee to knee). Sometimes I didn’t get the wrap tight enough.

I almost gave up on back wrapping. I posted about my problems on one of the wrap groups, and someone suggested I learn a ruck carry instead. That carry is simple, and it gave me a chance to learn how to make a seat in a back carry. Once I got the hang of making a seat, the SHBC also came together for me.

Finally feel we’re getting it: she’s in a good place, the wrap is secure, and she’s happy!

I love back carries. I use them almost daily to take the little one out when I feed horses on our farm. I’ve gotten brave enough to use back carries a few times when out shopping, and I will be using them more and more often. With the SHBC, I like that the chest belt helps distribute the weight across both my shoulders and chest, and the carry just looks nice. I can also do this carry with some of my size 5 and 6 wraps – and I have some pretty size 5 and 6 wraps that I like to get to show off! I’m glad I stuck with this one.

Like many wrap-obsessed parents, I begin stalking the babywearing pages on Facebook. I drooled over brands and patterns and colors, and I wanted to buy all the wraps! I discovered Didymos pretty quickly, and then I fell in love with Indio pattern. I joined the DIdymos Love & Appreciate and Indio Lovers Unite! Facebook groups. I had been eyeing the Deep Blue and Gold Indio on a retail site when one popped up on the swap. I mentioned it to my husband, and he said, “If you want it, buy it.” That was all the encouragement I needed.

This was one of my first Didymos wraps (I bought this one and another at the same time), my first hemp/cotton blend, and my first size 5. The size 5 let me try out a few different carries, which was fun!

This wrap is just gorgeous! The gold in the pattern makes it look shiny and fancy, and I think anyone would look beautiful wearing their baby in this wrap someplace dressy: a wedding, out to a party or to a nice dinner. At the same time, the gold isn’t overwhelming so the wrap is also great for everyday use. This is one of the wraps I took with me on a trip to Barcelona, and I wore my baby to a reception that my husband had to go to for work as well as out while walking through the town.

I thought this wrap felt thicker than its 220 g/m2. That might be because it wasn’t completely broken in or I’m not used to the feel of the hemp blends. The thicker feeling made it seem more supportive, and it wrapped well. I felt like it was easy to wrap, tighten and tie, but it also didn’t slip once tied. I appreciate those qualities in a wrap.

I got churny and ended up selling this wrap. I didn’t like how stiff and thick it felt, but don’t hold that against the wrap!, I have discovered I’m just not a fan of the hemp blends. If you have more patience for breaking hemp in than I do, get this wrap. It is gorgeous and shimmery, and you and your baby will both look gorgeous in it! I’m glad I tried it, and I enjoy my Deep Blue and Gold Hemp Indio photos.

One note about Indios: the pattern seems pretty prone to getting pulls. I love the Indio pattern, but I’m so clumsy and spend so much time outside that I really fret about rubbing up against something that snags my wrap and creates a pull.

I knew it had been a while since I had written in my blog, but I’m amazed to find that it has been almost three months! Our life has been so chaotic that I just barely had a chance to read email: there was no time for writing blogs.

During the first part of my hiatus from the blog, I barely wore my little one. It was so hot in Texas, that going outside was miserable. We hung out at home, and I just rarely wore her. We were also preparing to move, and I spent a lot of my time unpacking (and then repacking the stuff the lo unpacked!).

Then we got here to Kansas, and I was too busy unpacking for a while to wear her. I was starting to fear I was never going to wear her much again, and I even thought about selling my wraps and giving up.

The little one and me at the Ren Fest in Kansas City.

Fortunately, that little burst of despair passed! The weather in Kansas in September and October is much nicer than the weather in Texas. We started going to festivals and on other outings, and those are perfect places for babywearing.

I decided that I needed exercise, so I started practicing back-wrapping so I could take her on walks around on property. This was a win-win-win. I got exercise, the little one got to get outside and see stuff, and my back-wrapping skills improved.

The little one helping me work at the Bluebonnet Horse Expo.

Life is starting to even out here in our new home state, so I plan to get back to wrap reviews, learning new carries, and sharing the babywearing love and my journey to become a better babywearer!

I ordered the Lenny Lamb Bubo Owls at the same time I ordered the Lenny Lamb Tangata. I love owls – they’re fascinating birds, and we have two to three great horned owls who pass through our property both in the spring and fall. I could sit outside for hours listening to them – and I often have. While I was pregnant, I was in our pool one evening when an owl swooped right over my head, flew up to the roof of our house, and landed to who-who for a while. One of our baby showers was owl-themed, and she has a great owl painting hanging in her room. Yes, I do love owls! That made a Lenny Lamb Bubo Owls the perfect wrap for us.

When I ordered the wrap, the only carries I knew were FWCC and FCC, so I ordered a size six. My goal, like any good baby wrapper, was to learn more carries in my base size. The Bubo Owls is lighter on the “wrong” side, which makes it easy to tell if you’ve twisted the wrap. It also looks nice for those carries with shoulder flips. Since all the owls face the same way on the wrap, it is also easy to tell top from bottom and that makes it easy to figure out which rail to tighten to take slack out of your carry.

This wrap is thicker than the Ellaroo Maija or Lenny Lamb Tangata, and that took a little getting used to. It also meant, though, that it was more supportive and felt more durable. The thickness meant it took longer to break in, but I washed and ironed it a couple of times, braided it, and wore it as much as I could.

This was the wrap I decided to take with us on vacation to Barcelona, Spain. I wore the wrap almost every day for nearly two weeks. It got softer the more I wore it, and I had no problems with this wrap. Being 100% cotton made it easy to care for, too – a nice wash, dry, and iron and it looked great again!

I bought an Ellaroo Maija used on the Budget Swap, and I quickly fell in love with babywearing. I started watching the swap pages, looking at wrap makers, and drooling over all the pretty wraps. I am a researcher by nature, so I read about the different sized wraps and what carries you could do, different materials and blends, different makers.

It took me about a month to make my next purchase: two wraps from Lenny Lamb. One was my beloved owls, which went missing during a traveling swap, and the other was a Lenny Lamb Tangata in a size 4. I decided on a size 4 because it allowed me to try some other carries (my Ellaroo was a size 6 and I also purchased the owls in a size 6). I decided on the Tangata because it is a rainbow wrap. After watching a bunch of wrapping tutorials, it seemed like having a wrap in which the two rails were very different in color would really help me as I learned to keep the wrap straight and to tighten the rails – and I was right, the different rails have been very helpful!

This is a light to medium weight wrap, and because it is made with bamboo it feels like in your hand. The bamboo also means it is soft right out of the packaging and needs almost no breaking in! I washed it immediately, laid it out to dry, and ironed it, and then started wearing it. (Since this is my only bamboo blend wrap, I don’t know if all bamboo wraps are so soft right away!)

This wrap also has a lot of glide – I think that’s because of the bamboo as well. That makes it easy to tighten as the fabric just glides, but I feel like sometimes I have a little trouble keeping the wrap tight. I’ve read that bamboo is really a great fabric for tiny babies because it is so soft, but that it often isn’t supportive enough for bigger babies. My toddler is small at only 18 pounds, but I can tell that we’ll have to retire this wrap soon and wait for a new baby (or pass it on to another mamma).

This was a great first new wrap for us. The size was right to learn several new hip carries, the different colored rails made it easy to keep them straight as I was learning new carries, and the bamboo made it soft and easy to work with. My only caution on this wrap, really, is that it probably won’t work for bigger babies and kids.

I have to add that I really like the Lenny Lamb folks. Their wraps are often considered budget wraps because they’re in the $100-$200 range. But don’t let that turn you off. I think they make beautiful wraps that should last. Give them a try!

I really enjoy hip carries – and so does my little one. She likes to watch people and see where we’re going while still being able to grab onto me when she gets an attack of the shys. I learned this carry quite a while ago, and it is my go to hip carry. In fact, during the time of the actual challenge in May 2015, I was wearing her all over Barcelona, Spain in this carry!

For me, the hardest part of this carry was the slip knot. Although earlier carries in this Challenge included a slip knot, I actually learned the slip knot while trying to learn this carry. Wrapyouinlove has a great tutorial for tying a slip knot here.

Once you learn the slip knot, this is a nice carry you can pre-tie and pop your baby in and out of. This is the carry I normally use if we’re going to be getting in and out of the car a lot or somewhere where she’ll want to be down for a while, then back up with me, and then down again (she’s no longer a baby – she’s a toddler and sometimes she needs to walk!).

In the top photo, I’m using a Didymos Emerald Turquoise Hemp Indio size 4. For me, that’s a great size for this carry (my base is a 6). In the second photo, I’m using a Natibaby butterflies in a size 5. I love this wrap, but the size 5 means there’s a lot of tail left over.

Babywearing Faith has a good tutorial here and Wrapyouinlove has a tutorial here.

In June, I posted about The Traveling Owls, my Lenny Lamb Bubo Owls wrap that I sent traveling. This sounded like such a fun idea – you send a wrap traveling to other moms who sign up, have already sent a wrap traveling, and have positive feedback. Once your wrap has traveled, you can also sign up to host other moms’ wraps. It is a fun way to try out new wraps without having to BuyAllTheWraps.

I couldn’t wait to list a wrap and then start hosting other wraps – how fun! Plus, hosting wraps meant I had a lot more wraps to review for the blog. Sounded like a win-win.

I created a traveling wrap listing and asked that my hosts have positive feedback and agree to provide photos for my blog. Three moms signed up. All three had feedback and had hosted wraps before. I sent my wrap off, excited to see what adventures my wrap went on. It would almost be as fun as traveling myself!

The wrap arrived at is first destination, with a mom in Ohio. Her first photo was of her toddler playing with the wrap. The second photo was of the toddler asleep in a back carry. It was fun to see other moms and children enjoying my owls. That mamma enjoyed the wrap, saying “This is quite lovely.”

After a week in Ohio, the wrap went off to Wisconsin. This time the wrap carried a child to a Bernie Sanders rally – it was funny to be envious of the wrap. I would love to have been there! That mamma also enjoyed the wrap, saying “We will be sad to see this go! Owls has been amazing to us during its visit!”

The wrap went off to a mamma in Oklahoma, and that’s when things took a bad turn. I had to message the mamma hosting the wrap to see if it had arrived. On Jul 16, she confirmed that it arrived the weekend before and that she was planning to send it out on July 17. After ten days of not seeing my wrap or hearing from the mamma, I sent her a message. A few days later I sent her another message. No wrap.

Since then I’ve written on her Facebook wall, sent more messages, and had the administrator of the Facebook page contact her. Two and a half weeks later, still no wrap AND no message from the mamma.

I’m really disappointed. Although Lenny Lamb is considered a budget wrap, they’re still not cheap. That money is gone – and I don’t have the funds to replace the wrap. I really love owls and I really enjoyed that wrap. It was the first new wrap I bought (my second wrap ever purchased) and took my daughter from Texas to Barcelona, all around Barcelona, and back home.

Some of you might call me foolish for sending something I cherished off to other mammas. With the exception of a less than idea interaction with a babywearing group, I’ve had great interactions with babywearing moms. Many, many women send traveling wraps and get them back. I’m just the unlucky one whose wrap has disappeared.

I briefly thought about walking away from the entire babywearing community. But it would be foolish to let one person spoil something I so enjoy. I just will not participate in wrap swaps or traveling wraps, and I sadly won’t be able to buy any more wraps for a while. That was an expensive lesson learned.